Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley revealed in an interview with The Baltimore Business Journal that Ring of Honor has secured a date with Madison Square Garden and will debut in the legendary arena in 2019. Safe to assume this could be Wrestlemania 35 weekend.

I also believe AAA may also run in MSG in September of this year. I guess Vince doesn't put much thought into MSG anymore since a non-McMahon hasn't run in the main MSG theatre since probably the early days of the NWA.

I would love to see it, but honestly I'll believe it when I see a specific date and tickets go on sale.

Apparently the big hang-up for WWE is that MSG now charges a HUGE "origination fee" if you want to televise or stream your event, which is why we haven't seen a PPV or TV taping in a long time there. So if ROH has to pay through the nose to stream or tape TV there, it could be a massive money-loser, and if they run there just as an untelevised house show, it'll be harder to recoup the rent to run there, and the attendance will probably be less.

If somebody can run MSG and make money doing it, by all means run there, but if somebody's going to run MSG just as a middle finger to Vince, but lose their shirt doing it, they're falling into the same bad business moves that eventually ran WCW out of business.

I would love to see it, but honestly I'll believe it when I see a specific date and tickets go on sale.

Apparently the big hang-up for WWE is that MSG now charges a HUGE "origination fee" if you want to televise or stream your event, which is why we haven't seen a PPV or TV taping in a long time there. So if ROH has to pay through the nose to stream or tape TV there, it could be a massive money-loser, and if they run there just as an untelevised house show, it'll be harder to recoup the rent to run there, and the attendance will probably be less.

If somebody can run MSG and make money doing it, by all means run there, but if somebody's going to run MSG just as a middle finger to Vince, but lose their shirt doing it, they're falling into the same bad business moves that eventually ran WCW out of business.

Streaming may not be as expensive as a straight up PPV. WWE did that one house show from MSG 2 or 3 years back & streamed it on the Network. I think the last time WWE aired something live from MSG was the HOF before Wrestlemania 29 & the last match was Survivor Series '11

There's probably a reason why WWE runs a ton of TV and PPV stuff in Barclays every year, and hasn't run a Raw, Smackdown, or PPV in MSG since 2011, and I think the origination fee is likely the culprit. And if it's not profitable for WWE to run the Garden, it's probably a lot less profitable for anybody else to be running there.

The rental cost alone is likely over six figures. Also, a company would likely have to pay for concession staff, cleanup, security etc - this isn't like running an indy venue where you can have your ring crew guys selling programs and hot dogs at a table, you have to pay union wages for the crew. ROH also can't get away with charging three figures for floor seats 20 rows away from the ring like WWE can, so they'd have to charge lower prices than WWE normally does to draw a respectable crowd. I'm no business major, but if it isn't profitable enough for WWE to run there regularly, I don't see how ROH turns a profit by charging LESS for tickets than WWE does.

If it happens and the card is good, I'd totally go, but this sounds like the type of WCW/TNA move where people let their egos override their common business sense.

That would make the most sense, but the article clearly implies (but doesn't outright state) that they're talking about the main MSG arena.

In that case, and you're right the article points in that direction, I don't know what they're thinking. They would need a STRONG NJPW contingent with several dream match caliber draws to get people close to filling up MSG.

That would make the most sense, but the article clearly implies (but doesn't outright state) that they're talking about the main MSG arena.

In that case, and you're right the article points in that direction, I don't know what they're thinking. They would need a STRONG NJPW contingent with several dream match caliber draws to get people close to filling up MSG.

Assuming it does happen Wrestlemania weekend, that Supercard of Honor show usually brings in the big NJPW talent (Omega, Okada, etc)

Yeah, I'm skeptical that a main-arena MSG show actually happens - not only for the reasons I've stated in this thread, but common sense tells me that if you were going to drop that bombshell announcement and it was legit, you'd think the article would name the date they supposedly booked. So by vaguely just saying "we're running the Garden", it creates a buzz, and then if/when it never actually happens, we'll see an equally vague story leaked to the wrestling newz sites claiming WWE blocked it from happening.